It's Your Story Now

In my faily small town which is a bedroom community of Madison we canvassed our entire list today by 6pm (shifts were suppose to run until 8pm).  We will be back out there knocking on all of those doors again for the next 3 days!  I have people showing up at my house, which is the staging location that haven't even signed up to volunteer - they just heard about it from friends or the website.  It is great to see Dad's bringing their kids to canvass for a shift.  We had a teen that convinced his mom and dad to canvass with him today.  Beyond inspiring!  We also had Rod Nilsestuen, Secretary, WI Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection come by my house today to rally the volunteers.  What a day!

I e-mailed the story in the main post to Al.  I had to.  I was just flabbergasted by the energy I saw this.

 

To any and all Field Hands reading this: I implore you to leave everything on the road.  Tomorrow.  Monday.  Tuesday.  Make some calls, knock on some doors, meet some voters face to face and make a connection.  Something is happening in America.  Something has broken free that the powers that be have desperarely tried to keep chained and impotent.

 

Tuesday is our St. Crispin's day.  If you hit the road I promise you will never forget what happens next.

Hi Al! Saw your twitter, and came running over to tell some stories.

So i spent the day calling from Berkeley HQs. Myself and 3 others (incuding field hand Jeff) were supposed to spend this weekend in Reno, Nevada. But we received a call from the campaign that asked us to phonebank instead, since we were unable to work all 4 days till Tuesday. Sad face, but we will go where we are needed. We will be back phonebanking tomorrow.

We showed up to Berkeley HQs, bagels in hand for everyone. The place was PACKED. packed packed packed. We had to move over to an overflow office across the street.  Started at 9am, ended at about 3. They kept running out of calling sheets, it was so crowded! Amazing turnout.

Some Florida stories; all of our calls were to the Fort Meyers, Fort Lauderdale and Miami area, so these are the highlights. I think we made roughly 175 calls each:

+ only one angry response. crazy enough, this one from an Obama supporter who had just had it with all the calls and hung up. So many of these call lists go to other organizations. You just have to smile through it and soldier on to the next call. It was my first real human answer so I was a bit bummed.

+ one person called me back after i left a message to make sure i tallied him down as "VOTED; FOR OBAMA".

+ one lovely African American man told the story of how he stood in line yesterday with his elderly father for 5+ hours to vote. They eventually had to leave the line to take his father to the hospital. Father is fine and they are going back to vote tomorrow. (Early voting in Florida is 7am-7pm all weekend, but not on Monday). He said this was the election of the lifetime and teared up; he said he was doing all he could to get people out to vote himself.

+ a woman in her mid-40s said she was leaving town for the weekend but had offered her friends office up earlier this week for a staging area.

+ a wonderful elderly woman said this was her first time voting in 45 years. 45 YEARS! She is a registered Republican and herself, her husband, and her son all are voting Obama.

+ one elderly woman is unable to move from her bed, but asked us to call her son. She said he was supposed to vote in honor of her and would vote for whomever she wanted. We offered her a ride to the polls but she cannot move. So she passed on the number to her son and we gave him a call. He will be voting for Obama in honor of her.

+ one person who answered was also phonebanking from Florida and we shared a laugh. he had already voted.

Oakland and Berkeley are on fire! So many people phonebanking, i can't keep up with my friends who are all out there working their asses off.

Hi Al and Fieldhands,

I am working out of the South Fulton County Campaign for Change office.  We are almost totally volunteer staffed--there is one paidField Organizer.  Our GOTV effort has been in high gear for the past few weeks.  Over 35% of registered voters voted early in Georgia.  When I last checked yesterday, 35% of early voters were African Americans.  Voters are not identified by party in Georgia statistics.

Since last commenting on the Field, I have been appointed the Field Director for our GOTV effort.  Things are jumping here.  We are phonebanking and canvassing from this office and the seven satellite staging locations we have recently established.

If there are any Fieldhands from less competitive neighboring states, please come and help us.  Go to MYBO and put in zip code 30344.

 

 

 

Mikell Hagood

Well, I had to work today and take care of various necessities.  I have already described to you folks the conflict at the barbar shop today.  Even though I wasn't canvassing, you can bet that I use every opprotunity to ask people if they have voted--and to outline for them my reasons for believing that this is an important, historical moment.

Frequently, in traffic, I engage conversation with fellow citizens at stop lights. Rich, poor, black, white, hispanic, Nascar, yuppie--it doesn't matter, I will engage the people.  Today, I pulled up alongside a white Mercedes Benz.  At the first light, the driver, a woman, was talking on the phone, so I did not interrupt her.  Because she was off the phone at the second light I had my chance.  She was quite beautiful, and I thought she was Latina.  But, no, she was from South Africa (Indian), and it turns out she is friends with the Obama family!  Incredible.

After the trauma this morning at the barbar shop, this woman invigorated my hope.

You never know who your allies are folks.  The liberal wing of the affuent class also wants moderate, healthy reform in the US--big-time. 

Tomarrow I have the opprotunity to canvass at 10:00am--and Monday I have to be in Jacksonville with work.  I am going to give my work tomarrow my best effort.  On voting day, Tuesday, I will be doing everything in my power to get of the vote.

These types of activities need to become second nature, and part of who we are as US citizens.  Now I am approaching strangers with no qualms whatsoever; I am not afraid that someone will have a different opinion, not afraid to engage people.  This is about the future of our country and the world--and what kind of world it  will/can be. 

Sure, some people are put off by the up-front nature of the exchange--but other people (like the woman in the white Mercedes) are empowered by the fleeting exchange of good will.

No, this is balls-to-the-wall until the polls close on November 4th--but I have the feeling that our ground game and enthusiasum will be the 'difference that makes the difference'.  Of this I have no doubt.

Yes we can!

(I love the fact that the Obama campaign literally hounds me to make commitments of time and money.  They won't let me become complacent or get discouraged.  And every caller is an interesting, nice person--from varied backgrounds.  These are not paid callers.  The engage this work because they understand that we need a stark change in direction in our country.  My fellow Obama supporters give me renewed faith in our country. )

I'm at a phone bank in Burlington, VT, and today I was given a GOTV packet for Pennsylvania (I think the maybe 50-60 volunteers in the office had already run through the VT and NH lists).  Probably a 40% contact rate and everybody, except one, had voted or was fully committed to voting on Tuesday.  I was calling many college kids on cell phones and they were all super-excited to vote.  I asked one "Do you have plans to vote on Tuesday" and she gushed "YES, I have major plans to vote on Tuesday."  The best was the 51 year-old female I spoke to.  I was a little more wary calling this demographic, but when I identified myself as a volunteer from the Obama campaign, she laughed out loud (in a good-natured way) and said "Are you kidding me, are you guys double-teaming me?  Seriously, I have people from the Obama campaign knocking on my door right now.  Gotta go and speak to these people."

KD

Today the Obama office in Cape Girardeau, MO was packed with local volunteers and out-of-state volunteers had to go to another office up the street. My husband and I got a great response while canvassing. Also, we saw many, many more Obama signs than McCain ones. This  precinct was composed of both Caucasian and African-Americans.

After finishing our assigned area, we went to a local restaurant at the mall. The 3 Caucasian ladies at the next table stated they liked my Obama t-shirt and wished they had one. I told them I had some Obama buttons and they snatched them up quickly. (I personally purchased these to hand out in Missouri).  Later our Caucasian waitress commented that she really liked my t-shirt. She received a button too, which she quickly placed on her apron! She said she really wished she had a Yard sign, though. My husband went to the car and produced one for her. I asked her if she would get in trouble at work for wearing her button. She replied, "we're all for Obama here." (This was an Italian chain restaurant.) 

I know Cape Girardeau County goes Republican, but Obama/Biden have some decent support there. Would love to see Missouri turn blue since it borders Illinois.

   

  

I'm Jeff, and I was sitting at a table phonebanking with Olivia (comments, above) today. Just wanted to add a story to the list, as I stayed on after Olivia left.

+ Olivia and our other friends met Thelma, a wonderful woman who grew up in Florida (the state we were calling) and told us she was arrested back in the '60s during the Civil Rights era. Thelma was awesome, and seemed to have a magic tough calling fellow Floridians.

Shortly after Olivia and the others left, Thelma asked me to call back someone on her list whom she had just called. Turns out the voter told Thelma she didn't drive, and Thelma, understandably, politely told her thank you and good-bye. Thelma asked that I call back and let this voter know she could call a number to arrange for a ride to the polls.

When I did, the voter said she was already arranging with a cousin to take her to the polls tomorrow. This woman barely spoke English, but she sure did know the word "excited." She used it before I did. I told her I was excited (I am!), and thanked her.

Also of note, Thelma's 16-year-old son, Shawn, was on hand to make calls. He's in the Rotary Club, as Thelma told us. I pointed out that Shawn, as well as some other ~14-year-olds, would get a chance to re-elect Obama in 2012.

 I arrived at the Encinitas CA phone bank this morning around 8:45 by 9:15 we had around 50 people there. We were just one of over 10 of these going on around San Diego County. These are going non-stop from early morning to 7pm est. They did training for newbies and let loose the old hands to call Ohio. We were calling supporters & many un-identifieds. I was encouraged by many of the responses of excitement.  I had some rural lists and Akron. Got a few McCain voters, and lots of wrong numbers, but the campaign is able to scrub these from GOTV lists for Tuesday. When I left a whole new group was showing up. I will be there for 4 hours tomorrow and Monday. Tuesday for me is all Prop 8 all the time.

Now that Michigan has become more secure, I definitely can't report the incredible volunteer turnout that John Greenberg did, but it seems we have enough to get the job done. With the help of a couple friends, we knocked on a couple hundred doors today in south (poorer) Lansing, and the campaign is setting up temporary remote headquarters to be more efficient. Not many stories to tell from today (though it was pretty cute when a group of children followed my friends to help knock on doors), but there's a couple of things I've found interesting about the experience thus far:

-The number of voters who have a sincere emotional investment in Change/Obama. The hope and the desire is real in many of the people I meet (interestingly, I don't find this to be as true in East Lansing, with students). Their hope is humbling and is probably the largest driving factor for me to want to continue the organizing after the election; I don't want to let these people down.

-I've had a peculiar number of white voters tell me they are voting for Ron Paul. Either, 1) they are just trying to be funny or 2) they don't know that Paul isn't actually on the ballot in Michigan. It makes me wonder how they're actually vote, if at all.

-It is incredible (to me anyway) how easy it is to use false rumors to suppress voters. Many of the people I'm contacting are low-information voters, many voting for the first time. They are confused by the process and are full of questions. I'm glad to answer them, but sometimes the questions surprise me because they've obviously heard something like "you have to own a house to be able to vote" or "you have to vote downtown, which is really far away" from somebody. So even when I don't make a contact, it's good to know that leaving the voting location literature at people's doors is helping to spread the truth.

Went out for the morning shift today in Richmond (VCU area) -- damn college kids were all asleep and hung over. Going to give it another go tomorrow hopefully we'll get some more people home.

I live in CT and I can't travel too far away now, so I'm going phonebanking from home.  Called Ohio and Colorado.  As you might expect lots of folks in CO had already voted.  It was hard to get through to people in OH.  There were still some wrong numbers in both lists.  I talked to one elderly vet in CO who voted for Obama because McCain voted to cut funding for the VA.

I'm not sure what this says, but as a CT resident I was offered a choice of calling OH, CO, or VA.  I have been mostly calling PA before this weekend, so this is a change of options.  It does tend to confirm Nate Silver's theory that if McCain has a big enough late surge to make it close, the election will likely come down to CO, NV, OH, PA and VA.  

 

Here in the land of the Palin, we Obama volunteers are focused on calling into swing states.  (Other volunteers are canvassing for Begich (Senate) and Berkowitz (House)).  My wife Kathy is precinct captain and is spending the day working the phones and reporting the call stats for a varying group of 5-10 volunteers calling into Montana and Iowa.  I'm schlepping the boys to soccer and taking care of the sick dog.  I was able to stop by for 45 minutes of Montana calls in between soccer games.  The Montana list has a lot of McCain supporters on it, for some reason, so you have to steel yourself for the hang ups.  The McCain people I talk to are grumpy--not very happy with the way the election is going, methinks.

Yesterday one of my calls to Nevada reached a paid staffer for the Obama campaign.  She promised to vote, after thanking us for our help.

Less than 3 days to go!

My dear county of residence and employment is largely red, and I've encountered swaths of McCain/Palin lawn signs in my neighborhood as well as in Glen Mills and Media where I canvassed today.  My canvassing partner and I managed to find enough Obama supporters who promised to vote on Tuesday to allay some of our anxieties.  There are plenty of boots on the ground from the Obama campaign's large presence here as well as union members (I've seen SEIU folks going door to door).

I received a barrage of phone calls today from campaign volunteers, including a few from New York and Maryland, asking me if I had time to phonebank, canvass, be a polling station manager, and everything else in the book.  As red as Delaware County is, the campaign has this place well covered, and I will continue to get out the vote until the polls close Tuesday night.

Good response today in Northeast Philly, a largely white working-class area that went strongly for Hillary in the primaries. One woman told me she was going to vote for Obama until someone told her he is friends with a terrorist (Ayers). I talked her out of it, and I think she is going to vote for Obama now.

One guy was cynical about all things politics, and said he might not vote for the first time. He loved Hillary of course, but Barack seemed "sneaky" to him. All these people hate McCain's policies and hate Bush, but something is holding them back from committing to Obama. This guy's neighbor came out and helped me convince him to vote for Obama.

I think race was the unspoken factor. A few weeks ago a woman told me she hated black people when I came to her door. That was the first thing she said to me. Then she invited me in her house and eventually told me she's voting for Obama. Yeah. 

All the kids in the neighborhood seemed like they were pro-Obama, and I gave them stickers. One African-American kid saw my shirt and yelled "Obama word up!". 

We told people where their polling places were and warned of long lines on Tuesday. Most people seemed willing to wait for awhile. That worries me the most though - some people have to work and are voting on their lunch break. They can't feasibly stand on line for hours.

I'll be in Philly on election day monitoring the lines though, hopefully everything goes relatively smoothly. 

For the last three days I joined our staging location canvass. Today we never could get out there since we sent out 98 volunteers, knocked on 960 doors and had so much going on at once that the traffic through had to slow to a crawl. Yesterday we knocked on 300 doors. We did every walk pack in the place and had a dozen more made, all gone too. Different teams were meeting up at the edges of each walk pack in the three towns, comparing notes looking for that crazy obscure street with one voter living on it together. Meeting homeowners on the drive out of their long driveways getting an ID that we would never get at home in a divided house. The energy was incredible. Some of the opposition was getting upset saying "why are you talking to me I'm a Republican." It was really a movement of community with food being brought in. Our vis people holding signs in the town centers all day. One old guy came up and asked, aren't you a couple days early. Many people crossing the road to tellus why they are supporting Obama. It's not finished though and we have a distance to go yet.

Along with my fellow fieldhands in safe states, New Yorkers are reaching outward. For the first time in recent memory, Union Halls are being turned over to the campaign for as long as we need them. Today, we set up six mega calling centers on Long Island. I will be working out of the IBEW hall in Hauppague. The new first time callers got their feet wet calling all our local volunteers urging them to sign up for shifts over the next 72 hours. Tomorrow (and Monday and Tuesday), all the calls will go to the swing states. With enough volunters, we will be going full out until the final bell rings on Tuesday.

Here in the Keene, NH staging location, we had over 300 volunteers show up, only for canvassing.  We ran out of walk packs at around 200 folks, so we sent over a hundred volunteers to outlying field offices for canvassing.  50+ Yale College Democrats showed up, as well as a Huffington Post "OffTheBus" journalist.  Most of our volunteer force was out of state - Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, and Illinois all had at least 3 volunteers apiece.  Five students from Montreal showed up at 8PM - I'm honestly not sure what they expected to accomplish then. 

 

After the first shifts were done, we sent over 80 people to go do visibility - our phone lines were 100% in use, all day, so there was nowhere else for them to go!  Approximately 20 McCain supporters showed up to counteract us, but given the relative quiet of their campaign headquarters I had the impression that that they sent a significant majority of their volunteer force to combat our visibility crew.   

 

I'm listening to our conference call now - we've signed up over 1.1 million canvassing shifts nationwide, 13.3 million contacts in the last two weeks, and 1.9 million newly registered voters nationwide.

 

We're printing turf now.  I'm going to try to keep you all posted but I have no laptop or internet connection available on a reliable basis.

 

Good luck to all you field organizers out there - we're the cogs that keep the machine running.

Don't screw up!

Yes, I know.  We are a really, really big R red state.  But, we have to start somewhere don't we?  Our early voting has been incredible.  I canvassed for our local candidates today and talked with a woman who said she had to leave the polling place because the wait was too long but I am sure she will vote.  She was adamant about it and she and her husband are Muslims.  They are so excited!!  Yes, I said Muslims.  We have Muslims in Oklahoma.  Can you believe it?  Actually, I am teasing.  I live near the University of Oklahoma and we have quite a diverse town.

 

I have hope even for Oklahoma.

 

I know that Oklahoma will vote overwhelmingly for McCain.  I am not delusional.  Like I wrote, we have to start somewhere.  I think that it is by one person at a time, one vote at a time and people like us that do not give up.

Love ya'll,

Julie

Please ignore some of the comments on the Newsok articles.  They're disgusting but they are not as numerous as they used to be.  It's the articles and the pictures that I wanted you to focus on.

Would you please email me at narconews@gmail.com ?

I have a follow-up question for you. Confidentiality guaranteed.

- Al

We did a rural albemarle county canvass in the lovely countryside around Charlottesville.  The day was exceptionally nice and there are a million things going on in charlottesville this weekend, so my contact rate was low, but interesting.  I saw some of the wealthiest properties of my life, and so after this canvass and my canvassing in the southwood trailer park where we targeted spanish speaking voters, I feel like I have a new perspective on the immense range of american inequality.  Most folks were Obama supporters, though I get the sense that, this being the first election cycle in my life (i'm 34) that virginia is competitive, folks were not particularly comfortable being canvassed.  this is all okay, though, because there have been hundreds and hundreds of volunteers in charlottesville, and the operation here seems to be running extremely efficiently. just on the downtown mall, they have three separate offices-- one for general info, another for canvassing, and a third for phone banking. there are also at least two other offices in charlottesville, and many canvassing staging areas at the university of virginia and in various neighborhoods at people's houses.  when we returned our packet and offered to canvass tomorrow, they told us that charlottesville was essentially finished to their satisfaction and they encouraged us to volunteer in other towns, such as stanardsville, luray and harrisonburg.  Because my wife's family is from luray, we had decided to go there tomorrow, but when we called the organizers in luray, they told us that luray was essentially completed as well.  OK, so this is a huge shock for us, because luray is our sort of mythical model of "most conservative place in the universe".  Estela tells me that when she talked to the luray organizer, she was told that there have been a huge influx of volunteers from northern virginia canvassing in luray, on top of a large group of local folks working tirelessly.  the organizer thinks everyone has been visited at least 5 times, so they are going to hold it at that.  

Because Estela and I are musicians, one of the charlottesville organizers asked us to give her the phone numbers of all our musician friends, so that in addition to chairs, blankets and snacks for folks waiting in line, they can also be entertained by live music at voting locations all over charlottesville.

We know that Nate Silver pronounced Charlottesville as having the best run republican office that he had seen, but despite their love of extra large billboards, there is no apparent presence of a mccain ground game anywhere to be seen.  The upshot is that it feels pretty good here in central virginia.  I feel confident that we are positioned to win this one.

Just got off the phone on a conference call with 20K volunteer Neighborhood Team Leaders.  Obama talked to us about the need to give every hour we can to the GOTV effort.  He said we can sleep after the election and that no one needs more sleep than he does. He said we are on McCain's 5 yard line and we have the ball.  Of course, he thanked us.  

I am almost speechless at the attention and care that this campaign has given to us as volunteers.  Here in MO, we are in the dead heat phase of the election. 72hrs. to go.

One other point Barack made was that the real work starts after the election...I agree.  How 'bout you?

Thanks for all the work each of you do.  

LC   

We had a full contingent of people to knock doors today in Carson City, NV.  The Californians headed out in the morning while the locals marched in the town Nevada Day parade.  Rene Russo came over from CA to appear in the parade with the NV Obama contingent and she stopped by the local staging office to offer us her thanks and encouragement for our efforts.  And later, after the parade, she hung around and posed patiently and happily with anyone who wanted their picture taken with her.

Even though our GOTV canvassing lists were scrubbed of early voters through Thursday, an incredible percentage of the people I found at home today had early voted on Friday (Nevada Day is officially Oct. 31 and a state holiday so many had the day off from work).

One or two of the people I visited were cranky that so many people were knocking their doors, and I crossed paths several times with a team from the local AFSCME chapter who were also canvassing.

One young woman I contacted said she was voting for McCain, and her mom called out from inside the house "I voted for Obama so I cancelled her out!"

I wonder if we're going to have any more doors to knock tomorrow and Monday!  If not, they'll probably put us to work phonebanking until Tuesday, when the last push to get those voters to the polls begins.

Here in Obamaland Chicago, the Lake Street office was insanely, ridiculously busy today.  When I walked in the lobby of the building (not the Obama lobby itself), there were easily 15 people with clipboards and cell phones sitting on the floor and steps phonebanking.  Once I got to the Obama office lobby, it was a madhouse and I realized why some were sitting in the building lobby - there was no room at the Inn!  I have no idea how many people were there but suffice it to say that all the rooms were jampacked with only floor seating available.  I ended up on the floor for a bit sitting on my down jacket and then scored a seat about 1/2 hour later.

I got a list of numbers to call which were all in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was so fun to be part of the enthusiasm in the room and everyone had a smile that they couldn't hide.  Local TV anchorwoman MaryAnn Ahern was there taping a couple of local politicians phonebanking.  One of the guys sitting near me got off a phone call and announced that all 6 in the house had already voted for Obama.  I told him great - I think that cancels out all the Palins.  

All in all, a successful day capped off with an anonymous donation of about 70 pizzas from the world famous Giordano restaurant! 

p.s. I just saw the most recent poll in Iowa by Ann Selzer which has it at 54 O 37 M.   Iowa comes thru again big time. 

 

Our organizer from Brooklyn said more than 1500 New Yorkers came down to North East Philly today. In our ward alone, every single Obama supporter was contacted: 8130 doors, and 4053 phone calls. We did the "three pass" system, speaking to 50% of the people on the first pass, another 25% on the second pass, almost no one on the third.

We canvassed in a predominantly African-American area. Great enthusiasm about voting. A determination to vote, regardless of long lines. I wonder if the McCain supporters will be as persistent. One woman, 46 years old, said she had never voted before. Also white people: "I'm tired of being screwed by my government."

Afterwards phone banking at one of the staging areas. Rumors spread that Republicans were calling Obama supporters and giving them false information about polling locations so we start leaving the phone number for the Board of Elections so they can check their location objectively.

Great day of canvassing today. We've got more then twice as many GOTV volunteers as Kerry had and Minnesota was a lot more central to his strategy then it is to the Obama strategy.

I was on the conference call mentioned above and blogged it and all the numbers here.

http://populistareport.blogspot.com/2008/11/obamas-campaign-shatters-rec...

Fired up!

Just got back from a houdini meeting in Derry, I'm on the senior volunteer part of the GOTV team as a data captain for a small town, so I have access to all the vote goals for the region which is kind of scary.  But it goes back to respect empower and include.  However, all the area staging locations were bursting today, and a lot of students from Brandeis and Tufts were in the area adding to our muscle.

I have not posted here before but have been reading the blog for months now (since before your move actually).  We are from Texas and knowing that TX is going McCain (though I think with some heavy pushing esp. of the hispanic vote -it might have been a different story) we have been volunteering here in TX.  Neither living at this house have ever been involved in a political campaign before.  Same story as millions out there this year.  A couple of weeks ago we went to New Hampshire for a few days vacation and spent the weekend while there canvassing since New Hampshire is a "swing state" and TX is not.  We have mostly met the most wonderful folks. Stories similar to what we read here.  One old guy 78 years old that came over from Greece when he was 30 and told us he worked 2 jobs to put his kids through college and now they have great jobs!  He was the MOST fired up supporter of Obama I have ever met!  Seriously he was a walking political ad. 

This weekend we could not go out of state to canvass as we have to work part time Sat-Sun and Monday.  So spent the day phonebanking from home to CO.  Many have already voted.  A few McCain supporters (and yes they are grumpy) but mostly Obama supporters that are fired up.  Several parents of kids that are now in college elsewhere and when asked if they too supported Obama - they all answered Yes!  One 75 year old guy named Leland.  His wife answered first and when I asked for Leland and explained what I was calling for she wanted to know  "If I am the one for sure voting for Obama in this house how come I am not on that list!!!  I have told Leland I am divorcing him if he votes for THAT WOMAN!"  She then went and retrieved Leland from the garden and we together (with her yelling in the background) convinced the heretofore undecided Leland to vote for Obama.  He wanted to know if being from TX had I "learned my lesson" and not voted for Bush in 04?!  I assured him I had not voted for Bush in 04 and wanted his promise in return to vote for Obama in 08 and 12!  Leland was super impressed that someone from another state who had never done this before would be willing to spend their Saturday afternoon calling other people to vote.  I agree and thank every person involved with this campaign across the nation that are giving up their time and efforts!

For every house in America that has one or two folks who have never done this before in their lives (like us) and now here we sit involved...this campaign has absolutely changed the face of politics as we know it.  And most importantly - now that I know what it is like to be involved........in TX speak - "I ain't goin' back!"   Indeed a new wave of people power has begun!

 

I'm in a wheelchair and going crazy being on the sidelines during all this weekend's action, and my darned battery even died! So I had them park me at my telephone and I'm stuck here this evening phonebanking off the computer to Indiana next door. I haven't worked phones since Tsongas '92! This is much easier, too. My contacts have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and I can tell instances where my calls made an impact. It's only hooking interested folks up with their polling places, easy as that. Really appreciate your blog. See you in Grant Park!

Back from canvassing the GOTV in Charleston, Missouri.  I was a first-timers and didn't know what to expect since during the drive into town, most of the yard signs were for McSame.  Our lists contained only likely Obama supporters.  We sent out five or six groups to canvas, hitting, I'd say, 400 homes.  Most of the voters we spoke with were wildly enthusiastic.  A few had voted early.  Only one flat-out refused to listen, and this voter was a one-issue voter (abortion).  We had a full day and I left energized about the prospects for Missouri.

I was most psyched because my canvassing partner today was a first-time voter who not only just registered, but also was motivated enough to come out and volunteer.  So much for that idea that those newly registered voters aren't enthusiastic.  Bonus:  we were also able to recruit a couple of volunteers for election day.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/31/politics/p201650D83.DTL&type=politics

I'm another reader who has never posted, but seeing the other reports from Berkeley, CA made me want to jump in.  As the others said, the energy was amazing.  Barbara Lee stopped by with some of her grandkids and gave a pep talk.

My personal lists (Florida, I don't know where) were terrible -- lots of disconnected numbers and no one at home -- but the bells were ringing with other people who were reaching voters.  When I left, I was asked three times for my next shift.  I'm actually doing voter protection tomorrow and Tuesday (I have to work Monday), so this was my last shift at the HQ, but I know it will be packed to the end.

Thanks for this forum -- I really have appreaciated it for the duration.

 

We canvassed today for the Obama campaign in working-class neighborhoods of Nashua, New Hampshire. With large pockets of Latino residents, we found that especially among young Latinos Obama was quite popular. Since voters can register on Tuesday for the first time with any photo I.D. and a piece of mail, a big part of the effort is to get residents who are still not registered voters to understand that they can register and vote all at the same time on Tuesday.

McCain had a bit of support among older Latinos. What was somewhat disturbing was the hostility from working-class white families in the mixed neighborhoods.We even observed several confederate flags being displayed, not something usually scene anywhere in New England. The organization of the campaign was quite impressive. The hoards of volunteers were enthusiastic and the information gathered seems like it will be effectively employed in Tuesday's well-organized gotv in New Hampshire. As we all saw in the primary --albiet a different type of election-- New Hampshire voters aren't easily polled and you get the sense that there can be no let-up on the ground game in New Hampshire despite its being listed as a "safe" Obama state at this point.

I had to same experience phonebanking to Columbus, Ohio as Catherine Cain.  I had spent all week in Milwaukee working in the main HQ there.  I have a family member who is directing field operations in WI so that was par for the course. 

Anyway, I decided to spend 5 hours today since I am back in Chicago now, phonebanking at the Lake Street HQ.  I walked in and saw people on the floors and in the hallways making calls.  I must have missed the Giordanos Pizza though (bummer).  The room was buzzing.  I made 150 calls today.  Spoke to lots of people who had already voted and many others who planned to vote on Tuesday.  I left many messages and got some disconnected numbers. 

Tomorrow I will be calling other African Americans in Indiana from home.  I am committed to making 250 calls.

I have been working like CRAZY since Iowa (having canvassed there for Barack during the primaries). As a long time community organizer this is beyond EXCITING for me to see how this campaign has evolved.  I can't wait for Tuesday and look forward to celebrating in Grant Park. 

My wife and I started out at the North Minneapolis office this morning--eighth canvassing trip for me this year, first for her (she just got through an arduous actuarial test this week). Beautiful weather, 50 degrees warming up to 60 as the sun got higher.

Like most of North Minneapolis, our turf was heavily African-American (and not lacking in motivation), so the main job was to convince folks that our guy Barack needs Al Franken in the Senate to help get stuff done. This argument proved effective (even to one twenty-something woman who responded, re Franken, "He's crazy, isn't he?" Well, she allowed that she'd vote for a crazy guy if that'd help President Obama).

The only pothole in our first run was that there had been a snafu with the turf organizing; at various times during the morning and early afternoon we collided with three other Obama canvassing teams that had been given turfs that overlapped with ours. C'mon, organizers!

 

We ate lunch at a well-known Minneapolis bakery/sausage shop/cafeteria specializing in Eastern European food. The four early-twenties young women behind the cafeteria counter were fascinated by our Obama pins, etc., and were excited to tell us how their (Ukranian & Russian immigrant) families had recently gotten their citizenship and were planning to vote for Obama en masse. A few hours later we dropped in and bombed them with Obama/Biden buttons.

 

Late afternoon, we went and picked up my wife's sister (old hand at canvassing) and mother (60-ish Indian immigrant, first time door-knocker) and then headed to the Northeast Minneapolis campaign office, which just expanded today thanks to a big infusion of union help. They sent us to the north edge of the city--slightly less urban than the neighborhood my wife and I canvassed this morning, and a more even mix ethnically.

As a group of four, we positively blitzed that turf. One highlight was a tiny blond-haired kid coming to the door with his Obama-fan dad; recognizing a face on one of my buttons, the kid yelled "Obama!" Cute.

Low point was a freaky 50-ish white guy walking out of the side door of his bright-yellow house; after my intro, "Hi! We're getting out the vote for the Barack Obama and Al Franken Campaigns!", he hollered, half-enraged, "You have GOT to be KIDDING me!", stomped inside and slammed the door. Mom, my door partner, was still muttering her disapproval an hour later. Me, I have visions of decorating his lawn--tastefully!--with a huge OBAMA campaign sign at about 3 A.M. Wednesday morning, just in case he forgets the name of the president-elect. My wife and sister-in-law voted against that. (Phooey.)

Anyway, we're all going in for a double-shift tomorrow, with more to follow. I have to love the nice weather, because I HATE phonebanking.

 

So: no mercy, guys! Thump those Repugs everywhere!

I had a great day of canvassing in Tacoma, WA . . . whenever my energy is at its lowest, it seems I come to a house that is so fired up for Obama that I can't help but get re-fired up and it helps me with the rest of the canvass shift.  The excitement people have in Obama's candidacy is priceless.  Also, last night when I was trick-or-treating with my daughters, a woman that I had helped register a few weeks ago, recognized me and was so excited to tell me how excited she was that she got to vote for Obama . . . I love that kind of stuff!!  

I just knocked on some doors here in Boulder today. Most of what we're trying to do in my precinct until the end of Sunday afternoon is to inform our voters with mail-in ballots that were not reported as received by the clerk's office as of Saturday:

a) that they cannot show up on Tuesday at their polling place and expect to vote or turn in their mail-in ballots at the polling place (don't ask me why not! -- just the rules).

b) also that they should hand deliver their ballots to the county clerk's office at this point, so as not to take the chance of late delivery. 

Boulder is a pretty easy sell for Obama, but it is very important we get every single vote out of this city and county to counter the Colo.Spgs. neo-concrazies (no offense to the Obama folks down there!). Then we'll start the election day GOTV on Monday.

In case you haven't seen the stats elsewhere, CO is reporting that over 68% of the 2004 voter TOTALS have voted already (1.47 M 2008 early/ 2.1 M 2004 all votes cast), with the registration of those early/mail-in voters split 37.7 Dem / 35.9 Repug / 26.4 Unaffiliated. Lots (sorry, no stats) of those Unaffs (like me) are Obama votes up here.

This is the source of my stats, if you're looking for a source:

http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2008.html

(thanks to brownsox at dkos for site)

Obama's done his part; We now make it happen!

I've had a schedule between full time work and full time school that has prevented me from actively canvassing; however, twice a month I run the snack bar for a Bingo game where the players are mostly +70.  I wore my Vote Nov 4th Obama T-shirt today and a solid dozen of the players stated that they would vote or had already voted for Obama.  At least one of the ladies also stated that she had voted No on 8.

I'm finally caught up on work and school, so tomorrow I will head over to the Hayward CA Democratic Headquarters to phonebank, canvass or do whatever they need.

So I contacted my local Obama office to volunteer (MKE). I offered anything and everything from phonebanking to driving for GOTV. The response? Pollwatch. The Obama office said that they are completely covered in WI, with the exception of pollwatchers. I am signed up to work on Nov. 4. For any Wisconsinites, please call your local office and sign up.

What y'all said. 

Overflow crowd at the HQ, 20+ teams out canvassing, folks are fired up, already voted, or ready to go!

Massive

I did a few days of work for Move On in 2004. Not to knock those folks, who were doing the best they could with what they had, but....  

It's night and day this time round. The precinct captain for Obama here was terrific. Part of why I can tell you exactly what we're doing and why we are visiting the homes is... he told us!  With MoveOn, it was "here's a list, go get them to vote!".  The local satellite office here (and I mean LOCAL -- three blocks away!) really takes the "Respect, Empower, and Include" motto seriously and has internalized it. 

My wife did data entry this morning at Berkeley, CA HQ. As reported elsewhere it was packed. She did data entry for Florida.

 

She relates that people were saying that CA has done more phone calls than the rest of the nation combined, and that whenever Chicago HQ sets a phone-calling goal for CA to meet we blow by it...

Did my packet earlier today in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. The enthusiasm was staggering, as was the contact rate - 23 voters out of over 40 doors (can't remember the exact number of doors, but can remember the contacts - long day). Nearly half of the people had already voted (today was the last day of early voting in NC).

Knocked on one door and announced myself as being from the Obama campaign. This was followed by a chant of "Obama! Obama! Obama!" coming from multiple voices on the inside as the listed voter confirmed that she had already voted. Smiles, waves and shout-outs directed our way from others in the neighborhood who knew what we were there for (word might have passed around by the time we were finishing up - or maybe it was my Obama paraphernalia I was sporting that gave me away). It really was so inspiring - it's sometimes difficult to convey that feeling to others. The great thing is, I get that feeling every single time I go out canvassing! 

I'm on for tomorrow and all in on voting day. Thanks to all those who have canvassed or phoned in NC! Anxiously looking forward to Tuesday to watch NC go blue. It feels great to be a part of it all. 

When I knock on all these doors and I get folks genuinely thanking me for doing what I'm doing (knocking on doors and getting the vote out) it seriously makes me want to do it even more. Great feeling. 

Three days. Yes. We. Can.

We canvassed in Northern Las Vegas today after seeing Barack in Henderson Nevada. This is our third weekend in a row in Nevada. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been to 3 unique and interesting areas in Nevada for the last 3 weeks. Today they organized all of the volunteers at the Obama rally this morning... on a nearby field transferring all the excitement and energy straight to the streets. We didn't run into a single McCain supporter all day! We made contact with 50% of the voters on our list and found many who voted yesterday. This experience is so encouraging and meaningful to us. It shouldn't shock me but it's still so jarring to see so many foreclosed and empty homes as we walk through neighborhoods of all types and to meet so many people frightened about losing their jobs, their insurance, and the roof over their heads. Thank you all for sharing your stories today... you have all inspired me for so long and I've never felt so confident and motivated. Yes we can.

We had our last phonebank at my office today in West LA, CA - we've been there on several Saturdays lately - and today was our biggest group yet.  Probably 40-50 people.  We also got ahead of the available call lists at times.  Several callers mentioned seeing some nut talking on CNN or something and just had to come in and make more calls - so all those "tightening" stories on TV are a good motivator!

Our calls were to NM and NC, I haven't gotten the final numbers yet but I'd guess about 3000 calls made.  We still had a vast majority of unanswered calls, had one undecided (good Lord, what does it TAKE?), mostly supporters, many had already voted.  Got several "Everybody in this house is voting for Obama".  An elderly guy that had been pushed to Obama by the Palin pick.  Many people inundated with calls from different groups, but they feel they are all from the Obama campaign.  I'd be curious after the dust settles to see some research on this level of calling - is there some saturation point?

I know I've definitely learned so much.  During the first rounds of calling there are many times you hang up the phone and know you could have handled it better.  But you learn from each one, and the successes are inspiring.  Last week I felt nervous, and by the end of today I felt more sure that Tuesday will be our day.  Making calls Tuesday will be like a party - I can't wait...

I write to convey a phenomenon I didn't really expect -- bandwagonism.  I'm a Northern California enviromental litigator, part of a fairly small world of people who sue and defend polluters here on the North Coast.

I spent all of last week door-to-door canvassing in Henderson, NV.  Back at work this week and responding to the hundreds of e-mails and dozens of phone messages, I spoke with an opposing counsel (a polluter's attorney) about my trip to Henderson.  He thanked me for my work.

The next day, I get a call from his partner.  An unbelievably pompous polluters' lawyer I've locked horns with several times in the past.   This lawyer said he'd heard about my trip to Nevada and wanted to know how it went.  He said he'd canvassed for McCarthy in 1968 and that he wanted to take his college age kids up to Reno so they could all share in the experience.  He drilled me on what to expect, what kind of work there was to do, how organized the Obama Campaign was, etc.

We had a focused and practical discussion and he hung up, cheerfully thanking me for my work and fully planning the trip with his kids to Reno (or South Lake Tahoe).

This is a guy who a couple of years ago pulled out all stops to help refineries continue to dump dioxin into San Francisco Bay.  Someone who defends companies that put lead in consumer products.  I was flabbergasted.

So, there may be some complacency (though I've yet to see any evidence of it) but there's also a filling-up bandwagon of the most unlikely volunteers who want to be able to say they worked on this historic campaign.

Never thought anything could be more important than electing Obama, seeing what this campaign has inspired, I'm reminded of words of Dag Hammarskjold in his book Markings:

"For all that has been, thanks.  To all that shall be, yes."

I have signed up with the NY Call team. I have called from home or from local phone banks for the last 3 weekends. Yesterday's phone bank was in a beautiful setting on the Hudson River on a bright sunny day. Many vounteers enjoyed the yard while calling supporters in FL to GOTV. I am volunteering there again today!

I like the positive energy that comes from being around other supporters! I also love the anecdotal stories on the Field and DailyKos, particularly the photo diaries of rallies or early voting that I can't experience here in a non-battleground state.

I worked the first shift yesterday (~11am), but parking was scarce, the sign in sheet was full, and voices drifted from many rooms as prospective voters were called. In my 3 hours, I called ~120 numbers (did 2 passes through my lists), left many voicemails with early voting & Election day info, and spoke to ~ 50 people. Half had already voted themselves for Obama/Biden and many told me their entire family also supported Obama. Most were very enthusiastic about their support.

My list had many disconnected wrong numbers, similar to the Erie PA lists I used on the previous weekend. I only had 2 hang ups, but several voters told me I was the 2nd or 3rd Obama GOTV phone call they had received. Three people ended the conversation with me because an Obama canvass team was at their door!

Only one McCain supporter on the FL list who asked (nicely) why he wasn't off the list since he's been called alot during the last 3 weeks. I replied that I didn't know why he was still on the list, but maybe the campaign still had hope for him. :) When I called Erie PA, I did get one McCain supporter who answered my question with nasty foul language. Since I grew up in the Blair/Bedford county area of Central PA, I wasn't surprised by the response. I replied (nicely!), "Oh! So then do you support Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, Ron Paul, or ...?" I didn't even have to finish the question because he hung up. Heh Heh Heh....

I am volunteering again this afternoon at the local phonebank and the RSVP list on BO.com show 30 people signed up for the first shift & that doesn't count the volunteers from other organization who will come too. I know this is happening across New York because the wrap up teleconferences I get invited to in the evening discuss how many areas of NY are contributing to the GOTV effort.

I will make calls from home later today and Monday evening too. I donated a little on Friday too when requested by the campiagn. I like their cajoling emails that keep me from being complacent. Thanks to everyone here doing what they can on this historic movement! I am inspired by Barack, by the campaign, and all my fellow volunteers! I too want to leave everything on the road!

Susan

It was good to read your email about the overwhelming turnout of volunteers in Indiana.  I experienced a similar thing in Hammond where there were so many volunteers they were able to canvas more territory than planned.  I went down to the Carpenters Union in Hammond where we were asked to canvas a predomoninantly black neighborhood.  We were to knock on every door and if they weren't home or hadn't voted yet, another volunteer would knock on their door every day until the the close of the polls on Tuesday.  The people we did talk to told us about showing up to early vot at 6:45 in the morning - where there were only 2 voting machines for a long line of people - but they were happy to wait and happy to vote.  It did become clear to me, though, after explaining to people what they needed to bring to the polls to vote, after trying to help people who had moved or changed their registration, that the laws governing voter id and registration are intended to keep these people from voting.  It's something we have to address if we want to have a voice in our government.

Don't know if there are any St. Louis residents here but a diary on DKos is looking for volunteers in the north of the city

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/1/23825/3240/440/649433

KD

Phone banking yesterday through Tuesday at our NEW (just over a week-old) SE Asheville satellite office.  Yesterday, we were informing voters that early voting (yesterday was our last day) had been extended from 1 PM to 5 PM.  Over 2.3 million have voted early in NC!

The office is busy with shifts of callers, canvassers, folks bringing food and volunteers babysitting so others can go out and canvass.  We are upbeat and focused.  As Barack said yesterday, we can sleep after Tues.

 

 

 

Well, I am dong laundry this morning before I pick up my canvassing packet at 10:00am.  Went to a local Latino grocery and bough some breakfast.  Returning to my truck I spotted a Bush '04 bumper sticker on a car about thirty feet away.

A Latino man returned to the car and I said to him  "Not this time!  We can't afford another Republican administration."

He said "I'm not voting".

I thanked him for not voting and headed home.

Indeed, I hope that this anecdote is an indicator of a wider trend around the country.  I think it is.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I left my hometown in Winnetka, IL (a suburb 18 miles north of Chicago) and drove to Milwaukee Wisconsin to the main out-of-state (really Illinois) staging area.  It's at Lena's Food, a former supermarket.  The space is enormous.

When I arrived in Milwaukee at 8:45, we were met by dozens of volunteers directing folks to the parking area, and then inside where we checked in (there were check-in tables at-the-ready outside as well for the 9 a.m. "rush").  We were efficiently showed how to sign-in and then were escorted to one of about 10 spots withing the huge space where we were paired with a canvassing buddy (I had gone up alone yesterday), and then given our walk packets.

We drove to our designated area, knocked 50 doors in less than two hours, swung by the local office in the neighborhood where we were canvassing to use the facilities (since there really are none at Lena's!).  We then headed back to Lena's to get another packet, and we were on our way...

We completed the second packet at about 1:45 and returned to Lena's to find that they had blown through all of their packets for the day already.  Some people were then diverted to other Milwaukee offices to help assemble packets and makes calls.  But I wanted to canvass, so I was sent to the Racine, WI office, which is about 35 minutes from downtown Milwaukee.  

I arrived in Racine about 3:30 and waited about 15 minutes to be paired with a buddy, who turned out to be a man who lived in the area.  We canvassed until dark and knocked another 53 doors.  We had about a 40% at-home rate!  At least a quarter of our contacts had already early-voted, and everyone else was very enthusiastic about either early voting on Monday at City Hall, or on election day in their neighborhood.

On one block in Racine, we ran into two 7-year-old boys who were playing a friendly game of chase - the "Obama" kid (who told me later his mom had early-voted for Barack already) was chasing down the "McCain" kid!  

Got to get on the road back to Milwaukee now, where I will be canvassing all day today and tomorrow.  On election day, I will be serving as an Obama voter protection lawyer in Milwaukee in a precinct right by Lena's, coincidentally. 

the telemarketers in future. As a businessman, I get many of their calls and am usually short with them. Now, I realize how difficult it is to cold call people.

You volunteers have all done a wonderful job. Keep it up for two more days.

amk

I have to say I love this campaign!  We have very strong volunteer leadership here in Maine which means that we are running our offices (have had to open more to house our volunteers) now so our field organizers can expand their reach.

I am recruiting volunteers, training them, and keeping our phonebanking shifts running smoothly.  When our calls end at 9pm we start calling later time zones and it is surprising how many people want to help.  Amazing what people will do if you just ask!

I started volunteering 19 months ago for this campaign and have met the most extraordinary people--ordinary folks who care deeply about their communities, country, and the world that our children and grand children will inherit.  We have become a very powerful force and will not stop organizing and working after this election.

OK, going to keep this as brief as possible because reading all these wonderful posts makes me anxious to get back to work instead of wasting time sitting here!!!!!  :-)

For all of you who can't go to or call into swing states, a suggestion.  Due to personal circumstances, I haven't been able to do either...either, but I've been feeding [and watering] those who can.  I've been baking and cooking my heart out and my sister takes all I make or donate [like bottled water, sodas & juice boxes] with her when she's gone to phone bank every day.  In these times, nothing gets thrown out in this house, and I stock pile items when they're super cheap, so I've been donating all those stores to the effort.  [BTW, I have a great recipe for green tomato spice cake and you CAN make (freeze-able) pumpkin puree from jack-o-latern pumpkins, if anybody's interested.]  Likewise, someone wrote a diary on Kos suggesting any who's able take old lawn chairs, umbrellas, hats & mittens, etc to those having to wait on those long lines, asking them to pass them down the line as they go.  I'll be doing that for some of our voting locations as needed.  Maybe see if your local offices want to start stock-piling such things for the 4th to be taken to places most likely to have those long lines [college campuses, urban districts]?  Anyway, thanks to all of you.  Time to go make that graham cracker pear crumble. Go, go, go!

 Some of the people who support McLame and Flailin are pretty disgusting. This lady is one of the worst. It made my local news this morning in CA.

If you can't make it to a phopnebank definitely send over food.  Providing food at the phonebanks I held was greeted with outright shock and gratitude.  So look into that for these next days - there will be lots of people filling long shifts that some pizza or sandwiches can make much more comfortable.

I second that.  While the great crew on Lake St got pizza from Giordano's, someone sent up 70 pounds of ham and rolls and cookies for the HQ staff yesterday evening.  Not a full dinner but a nice nosh.

I have been tracking vote by mail results in Oregon for 10 years (and continue to do so as a volunteer project while I'm here in Chicago), and I know as much about early vote trends as anyone in the country.  The numbers we are pulling together from the key states like Nevada, North Carolina and so on are simply astounding.  This is truly a historic moment, and this is one campaign at least, while getting coordination and message and so on from the top down (as it must) truly takes on its real life in the field.

There were 780,000 door knocks in Pennsylvania alone yesterday.  This is simply astonishing -- the American people are going well beyond campaign rhetoric, even the great rhetoric of Barack Obama, to take back our country.

Of course this comes at a "best of times, worst of times" moment with an era of Easy Money coming to a definitive close, and the American empire with its 1,000 military bases around the world and two wars and vast "security" apparatus, and a health care system that is the highest-tech in the world and yet the most anxiety and stress producing and least available of major economies to large segments of the people.  And so on.

But what this election represents goes back to real American values -- stick-to-it-tiveness, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-"git-r-done"-ness, and "more power to you."  So it's not only the numbers but the creativity, diversity and effectiveness of this campaign, integrating the traditional tools of media, message, fundraising and strategy with the more organic but just as strategic work at the ground level, at the place where "politics" actually happens -- person to person.

We will have a vast, difficult and often frustrating national discourse after this campaign about where to go from here (but an opportunity in itself to change what "governance" means in America, as Al sees so clearly).

So let's work as hard as we can and enjoy this most wonderful moment we are creating in our 72-hour response to the delusional mess made in our country.  Most of all this campaign is about the importance of community and how America has rediscovered that for itself.  The Obama campaign only could plan for that -- it could have turned out like any other campaign plan, grand in design and tepid in reality.  The genius of the plan was to provide the tools, the political space and the encouragement.  Only we the people, however, could decide, "Now is the time."

-----

"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful
roar of its many waters."

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Frederick Douglass, 1857

Well, I get my packet and start canvassing a part of East Orlando that is called Union Park.  White, working class, small houses.  The demographic is white, middle to lower middle class--however, there area probably 25 to 35% Latinos (as part of the demographic shift this past decade).

The Latinos are going for Obama heavily, big time.  The working class whites, however, are a different story.  The first two houses with whites were disappointing.  The first was interesting.  The house was dilapidated, and there was an aged-Nissan being worked on under the car port.  I knock on the door and I greet a shirtless, overwieght red-headed white guy iin his thirties.  He tells me that he is voting for 'the old man', and that there is no way he will vote for a 'n...er'.   I explain to him about McCain's deplorable history on working class economic issues.  He seems to acknowledge this, and then talks about Obama taking away guns.

The NRA is so crucial for Republicans--their distortions and lies give a rationale to not vote for Dems.

The second white household I hit, a guy in his 50's answers the door.  I tell him that I am with the Obama campaign and ask if he and his wife have voted yet.  He say's they are going to vote Tuesday.  I ask which way they are leaning, he calls to his wife (who I can see in an adjacent room) "who are we going to vote for?".   She screams "We ain't vote'n for no 'ni...er'.

Up the street, I knock on a door and get no answer.  Just as I am about to leave a car pulls up.  I give the woman my speil and she says she will not be voting for Obama.  Her rationale is that he, Obama, is not a US citizen.  When I point out to her about McCain's horrible record on working class issues, a black guy walking by (keep in mind that there are few African Americans in this hood) says "he's right".  The woman still isn't budging.  It is her daughter that I am trying to contact, and she is not home.  The woman informs me that her daughter is half black, and that she doesn't support Obama.

I told her that I suspect differently, and go on my way.

After talking with a few more pro-Obama Latino families, I meet a Bubba family.  The man is a heavy equiptment operator.  He's not having anything that I am selling.  We converse for about fifteen minutes in a respectable fashion.  His issues are abortion, cutting taxes on corporations, fighting terrorists.  He thinks that the US should invade Venezuela.   What is frustrating is that he understands that the rich don't have the interests of US workers at heart.  The man also says something about Obama having a muslim heritage.  I point out that the man's a Christian, but the fact that O-man's African family are muslim is significant for this guy.

(Before I met the man I spoke with his bubba-like son, he hadn't made his mind up yet--and I simply asked him to think about voting for Obama and related my reasons.)

The white working class folks in this part of town are definately low-information voters.  Appeals to social class solidarity land on very infertile soil in these parts.

Now, having said that, I will also point out that the low-info mindset is also very strong in non-Bubba, yuppie communities around these parts.  There is definately a 'white soldiarity' thing that is operative on the level of coded language and barbaric, distorted stereo-types.

If Obama wins Florida it will be because of the core 35% of white people that are higher information and naturally skeptical of corporate power and rightwing politics--as well as very motivated African Americans and Latinos that don't identify with the white power meme.

The demographic shift is crucial to Florida.

Now, some generalizations:  Latinos in these mostly white neighborhoods keep their homes and yards in better condition.   They are not strident leftists--but they are skeptical of rightwing white power and unchecked corporate power.  In general, their world view is much more progressive than average whites.

Another situation that I have observed are working class, Souther 'bubba' whites that don't support McCain--but haven't crossed the line to actively support the democratic ticket.  When you speak with this group they understand that Republicans are much worse for working class people, but they don't have much hope that anything can change.

This is a cursory narrative developed from a couple of hours of canvassing.

It's stopped raining now and I am on my way out to complete my canvassing.

By the way, I am not surprised at all by the reactions that I have observed today--not in the least.  The deep, un-confronted racism among some people has been heightened due to the likely Obama win in this election.

 

 

Observer, thanks for the F. Douglas quotes.  The man was a genius, and he speaks eternal truths.

If we sit on our hands in passiver consumerist fashion after Obama is elected, we will not see much in the way of reform.  The lazy, passive attitude got us into this mess--doing the same thing and expecting a different result is simply insane and delusional.

I want to be part of changing how politics is done in my country.

So I can go to The Local Dem HQ tommorow and Tues. and I will bring food :)

 

This is History in the making.

I'm so grateful to be a part of it.

 

 Phonebanking to Ohio today, I got a lot of "not interested" as soon as they heard Obama campaign. The Obama people were fired up and had some with the whole family is voting O. Then the undecideds. They really seem to me to be embarrassed to say one way or the other but I could feel they are not undecided. Does anyone think they are ashamed to admit they are voting McLame? I sure hope this is not the case, I am CL-ing a little today after making 100 calls. Going to do another 100 and hope my fretting stops.

@Christi: Yup, yup...I saw that woman who wouldn't give Halloween candy to Obama supporters on the news Friday night and Saturday morning...which is why I specifically went to Grosse Pointe on Saturday...

for those of you who didn't see it on the news, that same evening, a neighbor of that lady (I use that term loosely) immediately made a hand-made sign saying his candy, like Senator Obama, was for everyone. He had a life-sized cut-out of Obama on his porch and took a video of kids (of all colors) in front of the cut-out saying Happy Halloween!

In our 2-hour shift, luckily for Grosse Pointe (being next door to Detroit, and all, LOL) we met more Obama people than McCain people of the ones who were home. We met more than a few McCain people who were embarrassed by "that woman"...living in Detroit, I saw more McPalin signs than I had ever seen yesterday...there are none in Detroit.

Unfortunately, the RNC is running a Rev. Wright ad several times/hour here. It is disgusting.

Without *announcing* it, the Detroit City Clerk is allowing early voting--meaning people can just show up and vote absentee sorta without a reason. Well, you're supposed to *state* a reason...the lines are around the corner.

My 2nd shift yesterday and my shift today is in "the hood". It is so gratifying to see Obama signs in yards of houses that could use some maintenance! Voter turnout in Detroit is usually less than 35% for Presidential elections, but not this time.

We're doing thing similar to upthread...letting people know that the lines will be long, so be prepared. We have cards to hand out with info of what to bring, what not to wear, who to call, etc.

My neghbor across the street, who is 40-ish and voting for the first time, is going around with me to help dispel any misinformation.

We already registered people; now we're going back reminding people that: unpaid parking tickets, unpaid child support, etc. do not disqualify you. You wouldn't believe what people believe! Well, maybe you would!

 

 

 

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

 

As many of you know, my all-Obama family is all over the USA, and we've been texting/emailing each other with state-by-state updates. My cousin just checked in from LA...4 1/2 hour wait, but she voted! My 20-something nieces and nephews have voted and are all doing GOTV with their friends.

My sister did an $120/person Obama fund-raiser at her mansion last night!  The event was supposed to be somewhere else in Atlanta, but at the last minute something happened with the venue!  They called her on Friday (she mostly lives in Baltimore in her *main house*...sounds like Cindy McCain...my sister has four houses) and asked could they use the mansion!  She flew down to Atlanta...she said it was a blast.

My other sister in Chicago is being filmed for Elle magazine from France as one of "Michelle's Girls"...

My other sister (I have 3) is married to a man from Ghana...they are doing nationwide GOTV with Ghananan-Americans...

But...one of the most heart-warming things was this morning at church...the Pastor of our all-Obama church, of course, cannot *say* who to vote for...it was funny listening to him talk about "two days from now" every which way without actually saying "Obama"...so he had to the two most senior members of our church speak...both ladies, one is 93 and one is 102...needless to say, there wasn't a dry eye in the place...then on the video screen was played a video of Fannie Lou Hamer at the '64 Democratic Convention Credentials Committee meeting saying her famous "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired..."

Yes, we're FIRED UP!

 

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

 

Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing? Sitting here in the Yucatan, I feel a bit far away, but my heart is so THERE that I had to do something. Thank goodness for VoIP phones!

I called to both Colorado and Nevada this afternoon. A lot of people not home (out canvassing for Change?), so I left a nice friendly message about voting for Obama. I got one guy that said about 20 people had called him today and if we didn't stop calling, he wasn't going to vote. I just said goodbye. Another guy told me he was voting for McCain. (sigh) They were in Nevada. 

In Colorado, I talked to three different women who had already voted, and voted for Obama. They all thanked me for volunteering. That was nice, cuz I'm sitting here all alone and it's good to get some feedback (and read all the comments above...)

I consider the most important work I've done is talking and emailing for the last few months to my dad (in Colorado) and my two stepbrothers (in Georgia), trying to get them to vote for Obama. I think my 80-year old Dad, lifelong Republican, will be voting for Obama ("Warren Buffett is my idol...", he told me. He also said "Obama has run the better campaign, made better decisions, is thoughtful and intelligent... and he's going to win"). As for my two born-again Christian stepbrothers, I haven't given up yet! 

So one of the names we called yesterday called back. This was the woman who is a registered Republican in the Fort Myers area who for the first time in 45 years was voting, for Obama (as is her husband and son). She called my friend back this morning to get the phone number to find her early voting location today. A stranger, in Florida, calls a household in Oakland California to get the 866 number to find their early voting location today.

now THAT is patriotic.

Hey all,

I'm at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Chicago and just heard a wonderful paper on community organizing in this campaign.  I talked to the presenter and she obviously had seen Al's work somewhere.  She raised the important question of how we keep from slipping back into a consumerist/client attitude toward our government and instead keep the sense of the government as an expression of a common purpose in which we all have a stake in one another.  Community organizing is key, as long as it isn't coopted into just another marketing stream.  She drew the distinction between the one-on-ones that seek out folks' real issues and those that just look for a "hook" by which to pursuade people.  One interesting question from the floor after the panel--What would MLKing Jr. advise Obama?

 

it's so humbling.

Yesterday, I went for the afternoon shift in my local precincts, and found that they'd had so many volunteers in the morning that all the work planned for that day was already done. We started in on the second pass that was supposed to start on Sunday.

So today I made sure to go for the early shift. :-)

I was doing the second pass for turf that hadn't been completed yesterday. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel for voters we haven't contacted yet, so most still weren't home, but I did talk to four people, which was actually pretty good. (3 Obama, 1 McCain.) They ran out of canvass tally sheets, so I volunteered to run out and get copies.

Tomorrow will be more of the same. Tuesday is going to be utterly insane; we're just hoping the rain holds off.

Today and yesterday Westchester County, NY volunteers were asked to go to a Rye Brook corporate facility that looked like the Starship Enterprise.  Our purpose was to phonebank, to Get Out the Vote.  Apparently, yesterday our location made the most calls out of anywhere in NY State.  Over 15,000 13,600 ? (I can't remember) calls.

I got there a little early today to help set up and could not believe how many people kept streaming in all afternoon.  More and more and more.  

I was assigned to train callers (to PA and eventually FLA). 

It was absolutely wonderful.  I was taken back by how many people were volunteering today for the first time ever.    

One person (who happened to be an acquaintance from my neighborhood) was crying as I was training her because she was so worried about people not voting and the possibility that the polls might be wrong.  I told her that it was all about the ground game and it is people like her who are making all the difference this weekend!  (Thinking of Al as I tried to do my part to provide CL vaccinations...)  Headed back tomorrow with friends for most of the day.

Before I close though, I thought I would share a memorable experience from last weekend.

Throughout the campaign I have gone door to door in PA, phone banked to swing states, done MoveOn.org 'recruit volunteer parties,' etc...  Last weekend, I phonebanked (to PA) for a few hours at our local office, before my kids' soccer games.  Weather was threatening so I kept calling home to check on whether I could stay a little longer to make calls.  My husband kept telling me to stay --calling was more important and weather threatened to stop games at any time.  I kept going back for more pages to call.  On the last page, after about 75 calls of straight forward "yes," "no," nobody home results... I got a woman who told me she definately wasn't voting for McCain, but she didn't think she was going to vote -- she was sure Obama would win anyway.  She told me she wasn't sure about Obama and asked if I really believed in him and why.  My heart started pounding and I told her that her vote was incredibly important, especially in PA... that I had never really gotten involved with a campaign like this before... that I was a stay at home mom, (I am 48, the same age as she is) and went on about why I felt as strongly as I do about this election.  At the end she told me that she was really glad I took the time to talk with her, that she was surprised to hear how important I thought that her vote was and that she would not only vote but she would go vote for Obama. She told me that Obama's getting her vote because of me.  I hung up the phone and cried a little.  I don't know why.  I didn't expect it.  I didn't really need to have this experience to keep going, but, it really makes you feel great!

Al and Fieldhands have inspired me greatly.  It's largely because of all of you that I am "out there in the Field..."  Thanks to all of you.  Thank you, Al.

YES, WE CAN.

Wooden said it, Obama believes it, that settles it.

That's my way of acknowledging that Saul Alinsky isn't Obama's only guru.  Just compare the philosophy of John Wooden, the best college basketball coach ever to field a team, to the way the Obama campaign's been run from the get-go:

• "Be quick, but don't hurry."
• "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."
• "Don't mistake activity for achievement."
• "Little things make big things happen."
• "Intensity makes you stronger. Emotionalism makes you weaker."
• “If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

The Obama campaign is the most prepared campaign in history.  They have advance folks for the advance folks.  They started organizing from the moment Axelrod talked Obama into running for president over two years ago.  Yet they aren't hobbled into immobility by this preparedness:  Far from it.  They are also superbly alert and ready to capitalize on any opportunity.

 Just finished my second round of calls, they went much better than the first round. Half way through my list I called a 79 year old woman in the suburbs of Cleveland. When I finished my little speal she said "oh honey I can't vote this time I forgot to register this year" I asked if she had moved and she said "no". I informed her she was registered to vote already and we really needed her vote. She was so happy and promised to be at the polls bright & early on Tuesday morn. I feel much better now. If you are not in a swing state, make some calls, or travel to one asap, it sooo helps get rid of the CL disease.

What a different feel than before the primary!!!! We saw plenty of McCain signs and literature at a couple of the houses we hit but we had some very positive Obama responses and got lots of friendly waves from people in the neighborhoods who weren't on our walk lists. People who were out and about seemed surprised, but in a good way when we simply smiled and said hello. The area we were in had already been canvassed twice in the last two days so people were pretty tired of seeing canvassers but our first stop was great (though the woman was so angry at her husband for voting absentee for McCain that we thought she was going to order us off her property when she first answered the door) and the last was also positive so it left us feeling good.

After turning in our numbers and having a quick lunch we headed back out to do visibility at the end of an off ramp from Route 93. We had a great response there (100+) honks and waves in 40 minutes versus five thumbs down and one "you're all crazy" comment.

The place was busy with a bunch of SEIU folks going in and out and canvassers up from Mass, CT, and RI. Before we headed out we helped make bagged lunches both for the Concord folks and for other area offices (and a big thanks to the folks who donated food from the Worcester area - it was greatly appreciated!). There were staffers there who had been in NH during the primaries and they looked upbeat, tired, but upbeat. I don't know what the overall numbers are looking like up there but it was a much more encouraging experience than during the primaries. Here's hoping we swing this thing!!!!

Just wanted to add that I think she's having a much tighter race for Senate against John Sununu (sp?). This is based on an admittedly small sample - our walk list. Obama supporters were telling us they won't be voting for her.

Well, thankfully, the second half of my canvassing was much more encouraging. Most of the white folks I canvassed have voted, ore will vote for Obama.   So, the white working class isn't to be discounted.

I suspect that over half the white working class, making under $50,000 grand per household per year will vote for Obama.

That said, the blatantly racist folks I met in the morning unnerved me a bit.

Just goes to show you that one can project her/his own biases onto people in stereotypical fashion.  In fact I think that most of us do this more often than not.

Obama has faith in people--but he does understand who frightened people can cling to stuff when they/we are under pressure.

All in all, I feel good about my work today.

Yesterday my sister and I volunteered for Obama for the first time! She made calls to Virginia voters from her living room, while I canvassed and worked with a phonebank in North Carolina. My partner was an elderly black woman named Ethel who has been going door-to-door for Obama since the summer primary. She was sweet, funny, and fantastically persistent. Afterward, I moved to the phones and met a retired black man who told me he voted for Bush in the last election ("...for religious reasons"). But he was disgusted with the Republican party, and impressed enough with Barack to make calls on his behalf. My contribution seemed small compared to the work of these volunteers, but I feel proud to have been involved.

News:  Lewis Hamilton today is the first African American man to win a Formula One race.

That is the omen, or O-man, that I have been looking for.  I set out in NASCAR neighborhoods--start our shakey and end nicley.

The fact is that far more white folks than in anytime in our history are backing an African American man, willing to give the guy a chance based on his merit and his policies.  A few self-described red necks are putting their neck out and actively supporting Obama.  This reflects well on the progress we have made as a people, one people,  in the last thirty years.

Four years from now I hope to be doing last minute GOTV work in Mississippi.

 

 

Finished my call list, it ended with a 63 yr old in eastern IA who was sick and has a hard time walking. Clearly she was lonely and just wanted to chat, so we did. She said "you know, I am so proud to be an Iowan, we sure got things rolling with the caucuses, huh?" I smiled to myself and concurred (we all really feel that way!). She said she'd stand in line for however long it took to vote for Barack on Tuesday, even though she is sick and has a hard time walking. I thanked her for her support, her determination, and for inspiring her daughter to vote for the first time in her life.

It is these types of calls that help offset the hang ups, the "hell no, I'm not voting for Obama" responses and the like.

@ Phoenix Woman

I liked your comments on John Wooden's organizing methods and that the Obama campaign is "the most organized campaign in history".  It's occurred to me that one of the main reasons for Obama's success is that historically most politicos, especially Republicans, have sought to manipulate the electorate, whereas the Obama campaign seeks to engage the electorate.  It's a totally different view of citizenship and democracy.  The former sees people as things to be used whereas the latter sees people as individuals of worth with somethiing to contribute.

I just got back from canvassing the second shift in Hudson, New Hampshire. Our staging area was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where dozens if not hundreds (it was hard to tell how many people there were as cars and buses were leaving on an ongoing basis for NH) of volunteers left for NH -- some for Manchester, some for Hudson.The drive to Hudson was about an hour. Four of us in one car. When we arrived to the TINY office in Hudson, there was a canvass training in progress in the parking lot. So many volunteers arrived during our training that the staffer directed 10-20 people inside for coffee so he could finish training us, then train them.

 

The office has run out of Obama lit, so we were given lit for the other Dem candidates, but asked to ID for President (Obama), US Senate (Jeane Shaheen) and US House (Paul Hodes). Unfortunate that they were out of Obama lit -- and that the lit for other Dems didn't mention Obama (surprising, I thought), but the IDs are what's important and lit doesn't really help with that.

 

We canvassed a suburban area of Hudson. I had very bad karma -- lots of surly NH voters who won't tell you how they're decided to vote, as well as McCain supporters, one of whom was extremely friendly. Thankfully the other 3 people I was with had much better luck so when we totaled up our results we were in good shape. When we arrived back at the office there were probably 50-60 people crammed into the one room HQ, all totalling their results and grabbing snacks. They had excellent food at this office -- someone had brought in a crock pot of pasta and there was lots of other stuff donated by volunteers -- very cool.

 

My feeling, having volunteered in NH many times in past years, is that it will be closer than the polls indicate -- but I firmly believe we will win NH.

 

The staffer who trained us told a story. In 2000, the Gore campaign didn't bother organizing NH. Three weeks from election day the polls got pretty tight, but it was too late to build an operation in NH adequate to win. Gore lost by around 6,000 votes. Kerry had a decent operation in 2004 -- although he also had many years of the Boston media market blanketing southern NH and on the other side of the leger I witnessed the massive waste of volunteer energy in NH in 2004 with the ACT efforts that frequently duplicated the efforts of and were not coordinated with the Kerry campaign, so I would argue that the campaign in 2004 was okay at best and could have been much more efficient and targetted. Despite all this, Kerry won the state by around 7,000 votes. Obama doesn't have the "hometown" advantage Kerry had, plus McCain has a lot of support in NH still. So to win here I firmly believe that the impressive organization Obama has built is 100% essential.

 

One more thing -- the McCain lit we saw today was HYSTERICAL. The cover had a rather bad picture of McCain and Palin (McCain looked ANCIENT in the picture, I thought). And under their picture was this: "Prosperity. Peace."

 

It was positively Nixonian. I almost peed my pants laughing.

 

Cheers & happy GOTV to all!!

I have been rooting for him since last year and am extremely pleased by his win this year. That's one tough and cool kid, just like Obama.

True to being an Indian, I believe in Good Omens and this is an Excellent Omen indeed.

I thank all the Obama volunteers who did the hard work for so long. 

amk

 I am so pissed right now, my neighborhood was canvassed twice today by the Yes on H8te group. Not once but twice. They did not come to my door because I have a NO ON 8 sign, but they went to all the houses around me. The first time was a young girl who looked no older than 16. I saw her putting lit in my neighbors  newsletter tube (only supposed to be used by the HOA) and then in mailboxes. I was nice but informed her she was not allowed to use them. 2 hours later a 35-ish guy with a very young daughter no older than 8 going door to door again passing by my house, I went outside and listened to the the guy lie his ass off about prop 8 and teaching kids gay marriage in schools. If my neighborhood was canvassed twice today, I imagine all of them are being saturated with religious wingnutters brought in from safe Utah. If you live in CA please consider canvassing to stop equal rights being removed from our state constitution.  I have many friends who are gay, they have better judgement and more empathy than any religious wingnut I have ever met. Please help No on Prop 8 to stop the hate.  :end of rant

 This year in NHRA (redneck, through & through) drag racing Antron Brown became the first AA driver to win a Top Fuel race after becoming the first AA sponsored in Top Fuel by a major corporate sponsor.

Another good omen and I posted that here at the time.

Yes We Can!

I am looking forward to Al's state-by-state analysis tomorrow. For next 48 hours, I will be walking on hot coals.

amk

I spent most of the day helping out in the local MN field office.  I find doing the phone banking too stressful for me (but I have tried it) and haven't done any door to door canvassing, but there's still useful work.  I do things like data entry of phone call sheets, black lining of canvassing info, printing out google maps for the next day's canvas, basically anything they can think of.  It all takes time and removes some of the burden from the organizers.

 

A few thoughts on food donations.  I noticed that it is really helpful if food donations are the type that can sit on the counter for hours without going bad, that way someone doesn't have to worry about how long something has been out, re-heating it, etc.

 

I overheard one of the organizers wishing they had stuff like a fresh fruit salad, and pasta salads, so when I took my son home (so he could work on his homework), I went out and picked up several deli pasta salads to bring back.

 

Something else to keep in mind, a lot of people seem to either bring sweets or meat-based dishes.  The vegetarians are kind of left out.  I hadn't even really thought about it, but one of the pasta salads I brought didn't have any meat and one of the organizers in my local field office is a vegetarian and so she got something more substantial to eat than she usually can scrounge up.

 

I also brought over a case of bottled water, that seems to be the drink of choice for most of the folks who were there.

 

I was impressed at the organization of the campaign, and it was very interesting to see the numbers on both the call-in and canvassing sheets.  Much better than sitting at home and worrying.

They made several thousand calls already today and are still at it till midnight calling NV. This is a huge number for this office!!!

They've been doing such great work over there that I wanted to acknowledge it here.

Joel,

I love that video clip.  I downloaded the song onto my iPod and I play it when I go running.  Talk about drink'n the KoolAid.  It inspires me!

Here's to Tuesday!

 

The story on the ground here is about 180 degrees different than that Orlando story. I don't know if you would envy us, or miss the opportunity to do "real" work.

For the last 72 hours, I'm doing canvass debriefing, canvassing, and "houdini" poll watching. We are averaging 5K knocks a day -- our precinct / ward had 12K voters in 2004 to give you an idea. Someone came in today having only done 1/2 of his sheet because the locals are complaining about being canvassed too much. Apparently, we will hit every door again 3 times before the end of Tuesday. There is an absolute army of volunteers.

Speaking of armies, I went to poll training on Saturday, which brought out 400 people. I stayed for teh "Houdini". (Is this state wide? national?. First I'd heard of it) Basically, there are 2 kinds of efforts 1) all day projects that seek to gauge turn out, and 2) 1/2 day efforts aimed at  precincts with lots of 1st time or sporadic voters. Here's what we do. A "Houdini" worker sits beside the pollster, listening to names get called off as they vote (like you walk up to vote, and say my name is kurt squire, give your address, and then we look up the name and check it off). The Houdini worker crosses these names off of their list. Periodically, a second worker runs outside and dials in these lists to an automated phone bank, which crosses names off of the voter rolls At 2:30, new canvass walk lists will be printed based on whatever names are still left on those rolls for being in the database but not having voted.

Madison was averaging 1500 early voters per day (we are all absentee), which means standing in a 1-3 hour line. I'd guess would but the absentee around 35K, or 35%. There have never been poll line problems here that I've seen, so it's kind of new for us to be voting early like this. Everything I've seen points toward Madison gaining enough to carry a huge part of the burden for the state, but we'll have to see.

Similar to Al's earlier comments, I've been thinking, as I look around, what a HUGE machine Obama has created. It feels like we're part of this massive army that is ready to take on the world. If Wisconsin still looks so blue next go around, I want to take this baby on the road.

Steve Hunt, I have to point out that Lewis Hamilton had won a number of Formula One races before today (and he actually placed fifth in Brazil).  What he did was to win the Formula One World Championship, which is a much bigger deal, and, I assume, a better omen for our own champion-to-be Barack Obama. (Those who like trivia might note that he is the youngest ever F1 world champion, and has won 8 F1 races so far.)

After spending the last two encouraging days in Madison GOTV we headed home, tired but content.  The weather had been just beautiful, we were doing blind door knocks at every household on each block, keeping tallys of contacts and supporters.  Most everyone we contacted was supporting Obama (not a surprise, many had voted), although we had a few grumpy McCain people.   The sun was setting on the drive home back to Chicago, and just as we pulled out of Janesville after getting some gas, a double rainbow!  It was just awesome, we took it as a good omen, and a sign of things to come.

I did some phonebanking for Moveon Wednesday night and it was extremely well organized!  They are doing huge things for the Obama campaign and GOTV.

Kurt,

I know that both our polls in Mount Horeb are Houdini polls. 

 

I had all of my walk packets out and completed by 2:30 today and the volunteers kept coming.  We rewalked half our our turfs today - targeting just the not homes from yesterday and earlier today.  I even sent a couple of volunteers to help out in another town.  It is really inpiring.  My phone has been ringing off of the hook with new people wanting to volunteer in the last two days.  I had a super nice older couple who did all of my confirmation calls for me today.  I am so proud of my town and all of the wonderful people who are working for change.

We'll be off for Purcellville, VA, for canvassing and GOTV.  Here in Silver Spring, MD, Obama reigns supreme...on Halloween, our "Yes We Carve" Vote Barack'o'lantern got rave reviews, and kids were asking for Obama stickers.  Lots of positive energy.  For from now until Tuesday at polls-close, I offer the Bard's best:

Another great clip. 

Just got back from several hours of phone banking to get out the vote for Russ Warner, a small businessman who's built a business from scratch, and whose son served in Iraq. Warner's challenging David Dreier (R) a 28-year career politician in this local congressional race.

Best call was to a woman in her early 20s; there were two people of that surname (age: 20s) on the list for that address. I went through my talk about Russ Warner, and concluded by asking for her vote for Russ. She said yes.

"I see that your sister is a voter at this address, will you tell her about Russ Warner?"

"I will. We were just going over everything and marking our pages of the booklet. We had put a mark for David Dreier because we've seen his name around, but now we'll change our votes to Warner."

Rock. Solid. Win. People are making their decisions in the down-ballot races this weekend, and calls right now can and are making a difference.

Of course, there's election phone call fatigue, too, but calls like that are the reasons to keep going.

I've seen suggestions to get your guitar and go entertain the voting lines. Here in Oregon we vote by mail, so I'm going down to the campaign headquarters, do some phonebanking, and offer a few songs for the weary. If you're doing something similar, here are three songs I thought would contribute to the "technology of uplift," as a friend calls it:

The Times They are a Changing (an old Bob Dylan chestnut, but the lyrics seem appropriate, especially:

Come writers & critics who prophesy with your pens

And keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin

And there's no telling who that it's naming

Second song: You Can Get It If You Really Want... ("The harder the battle, you see, the sweeter the victory...")

And my personal favorite, Better Way by Ben Harper. Very moving, anthem-like, easy to play and sing, and has been used by Obama in his campaign.

Here's a vid with Obama visualsand a chunk of his announcement speech:

announcement speech:

<www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-f73aZ2Ow&feature=related>

Lyrics and chords at:

<www.yourchords.com/2879/Ben-Harper/BetterWay-Chords/>

My favorite lyrics: "What good is a man who won't take a stand? What good is a cynic with no better plan? I believe in a better way."

These are all songs you can get an audience to sing along with on the chorus without having to hand out song sheets.

On the wall at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley, they have this quote from James Connolly (whose grandson is the pub's founder):

No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetic  expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, the fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinct marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is a dogma of a few, and not the faith of the multitude.

I live in a multi-ethnic suburb (one of the reasons we moved here), and one of the things I most enjoy about canvassing is hearing "Obama!" in so many different accents. Latino, Indian, Vietnamese, German, Lebanese, and more, as well as numerous regional American accents. It just makes me smile every time.

can anyone tell me how to embed a Youtube vid?

I've tried several ways, just can't make it work yet...

 

Someone else has already corrected you re the fact it was the world title Lewis Hamilton won today and not a race (and by the way, I hope it's not too much of an omen because by god I hope it's not that close for Obama on Tuesday or my nerves won't take it!).

But the other thing you have wrong in your comment is that he's not African American he's British. 

Anyway, now that's cleared up just want to say how great it's been reading about all the experiences you're all having out there volunteering - as a foreign observer of this election, it's all been very inspiring and I hope you all get the victory your incredible work deserves.

"Terence Tollbert, our Nevada State Director. just died of a heart attack (44yo)"

I feel too invasive about sharing a LV local internal campaign memo at this point - I can only relate that I was so impressed and inspired by both the practical and emotionally sensitive tenor of this very simple and humble communication.  It really tcb on all fronts.  The full time volunteers are still fired-up, exhausted, profoundly sad and committed to finish strong.

All part of the story you requested....

 

"Houdini" was someone's nickname for a system that "makes voters disappear" from the GOTV lists.  Actually, if you think about it, it's more like an analogy for a nation that finds itself in the tank underwater with its hands tied and face blindfolded and somehow manages to emerge back on stage triumphant at the end of the show.

Anyway, it's pretty sophisticated effort to go to the next level in GOTV work on election day.  After November 4 I will tell you the part I am playing. But once again, it's not about hq, it's about what you all are doing in the field.  "Houdini" is just a tool to make the election day turnout effort more effective, since election-day GOTV has long been a mad chaos of calling and door-knocking to people who have 80% or more already voted, and this will cut down on that.

There are other interesting consequences of Houdini but that too can wait.

Let's get busy!

 

Given that it's so late on the thread, I hope Al won't be annoyed by this off-topic question.

From Steve Hunt's post, I get the impression that many Americans are calling 'African-American' to black people who have a non-African nationality (e.g., like Hamilton who is from the UK).

Would a Moroccan / Tunisian / Egyptian / any other North African who has US nationality be an "African American"? Or is "African American" just an euphemism for "black" and does not include Arab / Bereber Africans? In Europe, when people want to avoid the term "black", they often say "Sub-Saharian African", as opposed to "North-African".

Is the term "black" politically incorrect or derogatory in any way?

I heard an annecdote of white South-African naturalized as a US citizen who insisted that he was an "African American". Well, he literally was :-), and would self-classify as such when required, given that apparently the definition of "African American" does not specify skin color.

To all of you doing campaign work: THANK YOU. It's you people who'll make the difference tomorrow. Have a great day!

 

'Twas the night before Election Day, when all through the ...

 

BondiBeachViews

Guys, Lewis Hamilton isn't African American.  He's from the UK.

tomorrow ? At this point, I am unable to trust any of the polls except yours.

amk

Indian Americans identify more strongly with the Democratic Party than any other Asian American ethnic group.

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/03slid1.htm

amk

No 14 with a bullet on the 24 Hour Viral Video Chart:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofHuLW6xdM

 

BondiBeachViews

1. Copy the embed code from the vid.

2. Click turn off style tools here @ The Field.

3. Paste the embed code.

4. Turn on style tools to see the vid. (preview in the comment box itself).

5. Post. (you could also skip step 4 and go to 5).

amk

Phonebanking or canvassing today, work like there is no tomorrow. Leave it all on the road and crush, baby, crush.

Looking forward to Al's predictions tonight. I have mine ready.

I knew Terence Tollbert, he was a really cool guy from NY. Had been in Vegas for months and months, his wife had only come to visit once in the summer. We talked about him going back to NY after the election to spend time with his family. It's very sad. He bummed a couple of cigarettes from me ;(    He was so personable and all the FO's loved him as he did them. He will be greatly missed. My condolences to all who knew and loved him.

Off topic (I couldn't get out to help this weekend but am heading to NH tomorrow), but I just watched Obama on the Daily Show from last week.

He said of leading with the country in such a mess, "This is the time to want to be president." Reminds me of how the truly great players, the Magic Johnsons and Larry Birds, want the ball when it's crunch time.

I suspect McCain's bailout campaign suspension fiasco was such a turning point because he looked like a guy choking with the game on the line. Obama is just the opposite.

 

In less an hour "There's Nothing We Can't Do" has moved up one more place on the 24 Hour Viral Chart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofHuLW6xdM

Inspiration plus for the final sprint to the finish!

BondiBeachViews

This is one of the first comments made on YouTube about the video:

"I am from Australia and that makes me want to fly their and drive people to the polling booths...we are counting on you guys to help change the US and the world. The world wants Obama!!!! Go Obama08." - MattLloyd

Everyone here in Australia that I speak to so wants Obama for President of the USA. Was in a Filipino restaurant last night (excellent food) and all the Filipinos were for Obama and praying for Tuesday (Wednesday here in Australia).

BondiBeachViews

Sometimes in our enthusiasm I think we might not acknowledge enough the Courage it takes for many, many people to do the work they're doing. I liked this simple diary from DKos, and wanted to share the spirit of appreciation for everyone who worked thru fear and picked up a telephone to make a cold call, and got out of bed when they were tired to canvass, and didn't let anything stop them from doing what this brave, brave woman is doing.

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/3/6389/04083?detail=f

Virginia GOTV Update....

While McCain was stumping to 9,000 of his supporters on Saturday morning in Newport News, VA...... there were over 13,000 people canvasing for Obama in the state of Virginia on Saturday alone.  This doesn't count the phonebank, drivers, food providers, etc.  

13,000 Obama Supporters knocking door to door to GOTV, neighbor to Neighbor in Virginia.

There really is nothing we can't do Virginia and America!  We can sleep on Wednesday.

 

 

 

Canvassing in Lancaster, PA on Friday and Harrisburg, PA on Sunday, we were told that Maryland was the state with one of the largest ( or maybe largest) numbers of people going to neighboring battleground states.  Going door to door in Northern VA two weeks ago, I found a veritable United Nations of enthusiastic Obama supporters.  The enthusiasm in Lancaster and Harrisburg this past weekend was great with the final person my daughter and I talked to in Harrisburg telling us that with all the voter registration efforts in PA he was sure Obama would win.  We were heartened by his positive outlook and by the cars that passed us with people shouting O BA MA.  There was a huge crowd that met on the outskirts of Baltimore to find out which PA town they were going to, and it was the real face of America:  Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, old and young.  One Middle Eastern family of four with the father named Mahmoud needed a ride, and a white man with a European accent said he had plenty of room in his van.  There were a couple of Ivy League kids with Yale shirts and retirees (like me) who are filled with new energy to be a part of this incredible movement.  I had planned to go to PA again today, but a Baltimore City community organizer who got me started doing voter registration called to say she was going to Mannassas, VA to the Obama rally tonight and offered me a ride.  My daughter and I jumped at the opportunity, and I'm going to love sharing this final VA rally with them!  I figure I can make phone calls while waiting in line.  And tomorrow I'll end up phone banking at the busy Baltimore County Obama office - after I vote!

Janet Alfieri and I are working on a book on the reality (pleasures and pains) of canvassing door to door. We are veterans of many past campaigns, and are looking for anecdotes, stories, insights and advice from canvassers. We spent 08 mainly in Derry NH, a conservative enclave of retirees and Massachusetts transplants and - at the end of each day, we're happy to have discovered a handful of Obama supporters. Though the years though, we have acquired a great deal of practical wisdom about the process - and believe that canvassers play a large part in familiarizing Americans with a candidate: that canvassers become, in large part - the face of the campaign. We'd love to have your insights and advice, war stories and the like. You can post or comment on the blog we are using to gather comments (www.seventythreepercent.blogspot.com) or contact me (Frank Mand) directly, at dogd@aol.com. Thanks